


Empathy (Non High-school Version)

by Karinakamichi



Category: FMA AU - Fandom, Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, fma 2003, fullmetal alchemist Alternate Universe
Genre: 2003 Lust, Alternate Universe - Human, Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, Depression, F/M, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Self-harming Envy (Fullmetal Alchemist), Slice of Life, Some of my own experiences, Suicidal Thoughts, Trisha Elric Lives, alive trisha, daily-life au, depressed Envy, fma 2003 - Freeform, some 2003 Envy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-01 12:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12704688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karinakamichi/pseuds/Karinakamichi
Summary: William hated humans. Ever since he could remember, he couldn't stand being around others. And he always found himself gloating over how disgusting and selfish, let alone predictable people could be. He hated how they all relied on others and hung in their stupid cliques. Above all, he just couldn't relate to them at all. Self-harm. Edward & Alphonse are William's brothers. Trisha's alive.





	1. Chapter 1

William hated humans; Couldn't relate to them at all. He looked down on their irrational judgement. However, hypocritically enough, he himself was short-tempered and often prone to violent outbursts and most kids avoided him out of fear or because they would be guilty by association. Needless to say it had proven to be pretty much impossible to retain friendships for William. It wasn't that he actually cared, though. Humanity was shit, after all, and he didn't need "friends", for they would only hold him back. In fact, William sometimes pushed people away like it was game, and it could even be considered routine for him. So unless asked to by a superior, he was left alone.

Even his family typically left him alone, the only one that dared to interfere with him when his door said do not disturb was, of _course_ , Edward. "Hey, Wil, it's time to get up."

William groaned at hearing the voice from the other side of the door. He really didn't want to get up today.

"You in there...? Hey!" Edward rose his voice, plain out pissing his older brother off.  _Impatient as hell._

"Shut up! I hear you, you stupid pipsqueak!"

"Don't call me short when I was just trying to wake you up, geez!

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I offend you, midget? I was  _already_  awake, so you were just being an annoyance." William snapped maliciously. Not in the mood to be sociable.

"How was I supposed to tell the difference when your door is always closed?! Ugh, I'm done with you!"

As he heard Edward walk off and his steps disappeared down the hallway, William sat up in his bed, letting the covers fall down too his side.

Unknown to anybody but himself, faded scars and cuts littered his arms. They were covered by the jacket he always wore, or by a type of skin makeup that's really good at hiding scars unless somebody was looking for scars. So nobody would find out, unless they looked for it. And he doubted anybody would care enough to look for it. When he felt the need to dissociate or when his anger got to him too much, he didn't really think and would channel out his pent up frustration and pain through a physical pain. Nobody knew anything about it, and he had no plans of telling anybody about it either. It was his escape and it wasn't like he did it but once a week or so, anyway. He knew his limit and wasn't stupid enough to cut too deep. Not that he hadn't thought about it.

He looked himself in the mirror after slipping on some clothes and his black jacket. He brushed his long hair which insisted on looking like a fucking palm tree. He sighed, then made his way down stairs.

Walking down the hallway, he smelled pancakes.

Trisha was the first to notice his presence. "Oh, good morning William."

Said teen just grunted in response. Scanning the room, he realized, Hohenheim had still not came back. Sometimes, he would go off for days and it was on those days Envy was oddly the most bitter. Envy didn't like Hohenheim at all, for too many reasons to count. The bastard had messed around with his mother, and then realized he screwed up when he saw she had a child. And rarely ever cared enough to visit him. And to top it off his bitchy mother was constantly talking shit about his father, and he didn't know what to believe. And then Dante and Hohenheim got into a huge fight one day and broke off everything. Despite the few promises Dante had made to her son, Dante just ended up dumping him on the father in the end. And Hohenheim started making promises to make up for what he had done, but he had simply started doing the same things as before. He didn't mind Trisha, but at the same time, he couldn't stand that she ever seemed bothered by much and took everything with a kind smile. Somehow it still pissed him off, just like everybody else did. Scratch that, Trisha was just as bad.

"You should have said good morning, Brother. That's not very polite, you know."

"Whatever, I wasn't  _asking_  for your _opinion_ , Alphonse." William simply was in a bad mood and felt like being pissed off today. It was all he could do. Envying people and being a bitter person in general was all he seemed to be able to do anyway. It wasn't like he had any special talents to spend his time on.

"Sorry..." Alphonse looked away, ashamed. He could tell that his eldest Brother was not feeling well, and wished he could do something.

"You don't have to be so hateful towards Al just because your in a bad mood, you know!" Edward snapped.

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm  _always_  in a bad mood!" William retorted, glaring.

"Yeah, well-"

"That's enough, boys." Trisha cut them off in a soft voice, bringing a pile of pancakes to the table than Edward and Alphonse were sitting at. "Now let's eat, okay? You can't grow up strong without your nutrition."

"Oh, wow. These look delicious, mom!" Alphonse said, but the air still felt stiff now. William sighed.

"I'm not hungry. I'm leaving."

Before Trisha could turn around say anything, Envy had already left, slamming the front door behind him.

"What the hell is  _his_  problem...?" Edward grumbled. "Just because he's irritated doesn't mean he has to irritate everybody else.

"Language, Edward."

"No, I mean it. William pisses me off sometimes." Edward, not paying his mother much mind. Trisha sighed.

"I hope he's okay..." Alphonse mumbled, in worry.

"I couldn't care less..." Edward mocked. Even though Trisha and Alphonse knew that Edward was just too prideful to admit that he was worried as well.

* * *

William had memories of being extremely young and trying all he could to get his father's attention. Sure, once in a while, the man would offer a "job-well-done", but it never was long before he was gone from his life again. He was absent for weeks, sometimes even months, and rarely ever came around. The boy had never cared one way or another to get in between his father and his mother's disagreements, but he hated how Hohenheim didn't seem to want to deal with him. And slowly, his hatred for him got more and more intense.

When his father left for long periods of time, it always put him on edge and increased his usual hostility and irritability ten fold. He often would forget what he was doing and would fall into a broody introspection. On his worst days, he typically even start hating himself and envying everybody around him, and was bothered by the smallest things; insignificant things that nobody else gave a shit about. Sometimes he would obsess over them. When he heard people talking about their families in any positive light, he grew irritated and couldn't help but seethe with jealousy. Hell, he usually envied everything and everybody in some way, but their ability to be happy and rely on others, to have somebody they trusted and could rely on, was what he envied the most, and on certain days it was simply much worse, even if nothing brought it on or triggered it, it sometimes just consumed him. Sometimes, it even made him want to lash out at others. Like right now.

If anybody spoke to him, perhaps the kids that were walking and talking amongst themselves a little ways over, somebody was going to get hurt bad. Even though none of them spoke to him, one of them did briefly glance at him. It was a woman who had wavy black hair hair around about as long as his own. She was the only one of them that wasn't saying anything. In fact, she seemed to carry a look of disinterest about whatever they were muttering about. She was a few feet behind them and seemed detached from the group itself.

Even though it was only a brief exchange of glances, somehow William felt irked when he had some strange sense that her eyes reflected his own. He didn't believe in fate or crap like that, but he felt like in that moment, he wanted to believe she was somehow similar to him, filled with hatred for the world and it's inhabitants, or at least he wished. No, he was just overthinking it. It was just a stupid glance anyway. Come to think of it, he was pretty sure he hadn't seen her in the area even though the other boys looked slightly familiar. Maybe she was new to the area?

Either way, with her looks, she would probably attract a lot of unwanted attention, and could probably have her way with anybody she wanted to if they were even remotely gullible to a woman with good looks. He'd rather not throw out assumptions, but she frankly looked the part of a player and was dressed rather seductively. He would be lying if he said she wasn't attractive, but that admittance would bring on more thoughts than he needed right now, so he pushed those thoughts to the back of his head, and went back to thinking about other things.

It wouldn't be long before he realized how right some of his assumptions were. Of course he dismissed these things, without thinking further into them, not considering he might see the female again.

...

William sat on a park bench, hoping to get a moments rest.

That's when somebody sat beside him. He didn't even have to look up to know it was Edward.

"What do you want?" the older boy muttered to his little brother. Edward's eyes brifely widened slightly, with a conflicted look as if he wanted to say something, before looking away.

" _Nothing_..." Edward muttered, looking away.

As soon as he did that, somebody walked over and engaged conversation with Edward.

William felt a great irritation at this. He had planned to sit alone, not surrounded by people. So he got up, beginning to walk off.

A small part of him couldn't help but feel bitter over his brother having friendships. He was pathetic, even coveting a child over something like that. Perhaps it was attachment issues caused his father or the years of hearing the pessimistic views of his mother that had rubbed off on him, but Envy didn't trust people, and pretty much had an inability to be even somewhat happy unless he was pissing people off. But even then he was subconsciously channeling out feelings of resentment and jealousy and other feelings he didn't want to think about into something else. Envy didn't like focusing on himself, but he tended to a lot more than was probably healthy.

"Wait, Wil, there's something I wanted to tell you, but I..." Edward's voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts. Looking behind him he saw Edward there, avoiding eye contact. However, when William looked to him in expectancy, Edward tried to speak, but in the end, Edward lost his resolve.

"It's nothing."

...

In truth, Edward had wanted to confront William. He may have not been the greatest at reading people, but it suddenly dawned on him that William's agitation tended to rub off on his own when their father wasn't around. He wanted to tell his brother than he wasn't alone and that he could rely on them, but he hadn't been able to find the words, for pride. The words just got stuck in his throat each time he tried being remotely supportive. The truth was he didn't understand William as well as Alphonse. William had only came into his life five years prior, and as such, Edward hadn't even known he had an older half brother until then. He didn't understand him most of the time, and they could never seem to get along. In truth, something in him wanted to, but he could never go through with it. This knowledge only made Edward more frustrated. Even if the older boy was kind of a stranger and they didn't understand each other, Edward knew he should at least try, because that was still his brother. And a part of him, irrefutably cared. But the majority of him didn't know what to do, so he just let the opportunity slide by like always.

* * *

"Brother, don't you William has been acting weird lately?" Alphonse asked Edward, with a downcast glance. He had noticed how William had been more reclusive anymore. Come to think of it, so had Edward, though not to the degree of the William.

"A little, I guess." Edward muttered, secretly trying to avoid admitting he had started to talk to him. He was lying on the couch on his side with his arm draped over his face and his back faced towards Alphonse. "What about it? It's not like we can do anything about it."

In truth, Edward had thought about confronting William since he last talked to him, but he couldn't bring come up with a sentence that wouldn't be interpreted as annoying by the eldest brother. He had already been growled at once, no sense in getting growled at another time.

Besides, Edward understood part of what William was feeling, as much as he didn't want to admit it. Unlike Alphonse, who tried to remain neutral, as to not take sides(at least on most things), Edward felt resentment for different reasons than William.

Edward couldn't forgive Hohenheim for making his mother suffer. Even if she tried to hide it, he could tell that she was still lonely, and struggling. Even if she tried to smile and act like things were okay, Edward wasn't blind and he knew that both Alphonse and even William had noticed them before. The side glances she gave when nobody thought she noticed or would care to notice. And he could tell that her smile was forced. And those reasons alone were reason enough to not like their father, but there was more to it than that.

Edward could also see the pain that Hohenheim had caused William. Even if it was only his half brother, Edward still cared, and still felt his pain even though he didn't know how to go about it. Edward wanted William to know he wasn't alone, but he knew that in his own experience, there wasn't much he could say to console him, just like nobody could say anything to truly console Edward himself. It would only cause him to feel more empty he was sure.

So Edward had decided to just leave his older brother be. Maybe it wasn't particularly ethical, but it was all he could do as far as he was concerned. Alphonse seemed to know that Edward was not going to speak further, and decided to not press him anymore. Edward, after all, could be just as scary as William at times when he was angry enough. So he sighed, looking away.

"Fine..." He stood up. "If you won't talk to him, then I  _will_."

" _Break a leg._ " Edward said sarcastically.

"Well, you should at least clean up while I'm out, Brother." Alphonse mumbled, scrutinizing the food wrappers and bowls lying around.

"Shut up... It's not that messy and if you don't like it, you should just go to your own ro-!" Edward snapped, surprised by his own hostile tone of voice.

"OKAY! You don't have to be so mean about it!" Alphonse shouted back. Edward flinched, his stomach turning, upon hearing Al raise his voice, something he rarely ever did, since he was the least expressive and most humble of all three of the brothers. Edward almost felt guilty, but wouldn't allow himself to apologize. "I wouldn't if you would stop nagging at me about talking to that jerk of a brother."

"As far as I can tell, you're the only one being a jerk...!" Alphonse retorted and with that he left, before Edward could say anything else.

Edward felt extremely bitter at the last comment, but didn't say anything. How the hell was he less of a jerk than William? William is the one that didn't let anybody in and sat around hating the world because he was wronged by their father.

" _At least we have a loving biological mother... He doesn't have that."_

A voice from the past interjected his other thoughts. It was Alphonse.

Now that he thought of it, Trisha wasn't William's biological mother, though she had accepted him as one of her own, but nobody had questioned how he felt about it. From what Edward had heard, Dante was extremely controlling and manipulative. At least Edward had the luxury of being born from a kind mother.

William had been pushed and pulled between his parents and then came to their house and never had a truly consistent family. He probably felt like he didn't belong.

Still, that didn't give him a right to fuss at everybody. And nothing would change his feelings on that. William was too temperamental, and aggressive. He was always irritated and never smiled. Why couldn't he just see that people cared about him. Hell, he was ungrateful and probably didn't deserve what he had. Sure, Edward had his own problems with some of that, but it surely wasn't as bad as William's. Alphonse had mentioned he could be as scary as William at times, if not more, but Edward disagreed.

Of course, Edward was being prideful at the moment, and didn't want to admit that he was more in the wrong than William at the moment. It was Alphonse's own fault for bugging him.

He got up, about to confront Alphonse further, the make his point, but upon entering the living room, he saw that Alphonse had already left. Trisha, who was standing in the kitchen looked back at him. "Oh, Edward, your brother seemed upset. Did you say something mean again?"

"No..." He said, looking down. Dammit, he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes.

"Edward..."

"Well, maybe I did go a  _little_ overboard, but it's his own fault for fussing at me over stupid things..."

"It can't be stupid if you're both worked up and are worrying over it, now can it...?"

"I'm not worried about William." Edward stubbornly insisted, despite himself, just to keep up his appearance. He had already said he wasn't worried, so he refused to back down while he was as irritated as he was at the moment.

"Say..., why don't you and I go shopping do some shopping to get your mind off of this, hmm?" Trisha smiled softly, rubbing his head. When Edward was like this, there wasn't much she could do, except to destract him. He always calmed down a bit after participating in some kind of activity.

"Mom..." Edward mumbled, looked down, as if he was feeling guilty over something.

"What is it, Ed?"

"I..."

Trisha didn't know what could be upsetting him, but didn't press him for an answer, and instead waited patiently.

"Do you... miss dad when he's not around...?" Edward choked out, forcing himself to ask the question that nobody had ever dared to ask her.

Trisha's eyes widened at the question. She had always been afraid her children would notice and question their father's inconsistent presence.

"How can you just act like everything is okay...? He's never around when he should be and... I can't stand seeing you hurting all the time! I try my best to make you happy, but I don't know what to do, and it becomes overwhelming... I just want you to smile like you used to... Why do you smile if you're hurting?" Edward's eyes filled with tears. He was afraid that Trisha would be mad at him, and though he wanted to say so much more, he didn't want to say anything bad about the person she loved in front of her. He couldn't bring himself to do such a thing, especially since she had better memories of him than Edward did.

Trisha didn't know what to say at first, but after a moment, she suddenly pulled Edward into an embrace, tears feeling up in her eyes. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but your Father loved me and you boys very much."

It would be a lie to say that Trisha didn't get lonely without Hohenhiem around. It would be a lie to say that she didn't find it hard to take care of Edward and Alphonse at times, and even William, but that would never take away her love for her sons, and to hear Edward even implying that it might be his own fault that he couldn't make his mother happy, hurt Trisha more than anything, because her love for her sons was so deep.

"Then why is he never around, mom?" Edward wrapped his small arms around her, the tears refusing to fall.

 _Why did he abandon us?_ The words got caught on his tongue and wouldn't come out.

"He just doesn't have any faith in himself to be a good father. And I may miss him, but there hasn't ever been a single time that having you and your brothers in my life hasn't make me happy. I love you, Edward... and I always will."

And with those words, Trisha broke down. Upon hearing her crying, Edward felt his own resolve dropping. He didn't know what to do. He had never seen his mother crying, and had rarely ever been put in the position of comforting. So he couldn't bring himself to say anything. He just let her hug him and cry over her shoulder.  
"It's not your fault, Edward. None of this is."

Edward then broke down himself.

* * *

_**Greed's name is Lucien, I decided, but if you guys have a better name I should have went with, let me know. Also, Greed and Lust are NOT together, but Greed is flirtatious to her, only more as a joke, just to provoke her. So they are just friends that are really close, kind of like siblings. Though they might as well be siblings in this. I'm gonna have Greed be really protective over her and Envy eventually too, since he IS Greedy.** _

Also, I fixed the spelling of Willaim to William. I don't know why I keep doing that even though I know how it's spelled.

ALSO, please note that Lust is 16, but I'm using the term woman because it's the only term I could find. People do say "young lady".

* * *

William sat at the same place he had been sitting at for the past few hours.

He watched absentmindedly as some kids were horse-playing, and then noticed a family walking by.

"Mom, can you make stew tonight?" a child asked.

"Mommy's not feeling very good right now, honey, but I'm sure if you ask daddy nicely, he'll be glad to." the mother patted the her head.

"Aww, but his cooking sucks." the girl looked down.

"That's not very nice." said the mother.

"He's fine. But my cooking isn't that bad, is it?" The father laughed.

Upon seeing the interaction, William didn't even want to hear the rest. A bitter expression sat on his face as it reminded him of the family he should have had. He was filled with envy for the little boy's happy life. As much as he hated his father, a nagging question lingered at the back of his mind.  _How would I have turned out if I had actually grown up in a normal family? Would I have been able to be truly happy? Why does that kid get to have a normal life?_

_He doesn't deserve it._

A sudden urge came over William to hurt the child for having what  _he_  couldn't have, we  _he_  wanted, and though he didn't act on it, he was reminded of something his mother had said to him when he was a child.

_"This world is an unfair place. Some people are born into families that will give them everything while others often work hard their entire lives and get nothing in return even though they do deserve it. Your father abandoned you because he's a coward. But I provided you with the things you needed. You see, I'm the only one who has ever been there for you, so you needn't even think about him, okay?"_

It was odd, though. No matter what Dante had done for or said to him, she had never once claimed to love him. Even when he tried to get close to his own mother, the woman had only ever pushed him away and dehumanized his emotions, unless it came to one matter - Van Hohenheim. She would only show compassion if she could understand it first hand, and even that "compassion" were words of negativity directed at the world around him, and just left William feeling more pessimistic than before. It was never to say that things would get better, or giving other options to deal with things. In Dante's mind, the world had no positives, and as such it rubbed off on her son.

Oddly enough, he somehow still wanted her attention. And a part of him still wanted to believe she cared for him. Maybe it was just human instinct to want your parents' approval and love, but he wasn't proud. And, unlike Hohenheim, Dante had at least stuck around, even if it was for her own selfish goals. If anything, he hated himself for wanting any kind of affection from anybody, let alone his parents.

William had lived under the belief that he had probably never been truly happy, but at this point, he was so used to it that it wouldn't be him if he  _was,_ so he couldn't care less, he just wished that, since he wasn't happy, that others weren't happy either.

"Hey, babe. I couldn't help but notice that you've been sitting there for quite a while now." A fairly deep voice knocked him out of his thoughts. He looked over and saw a guy, who was probably in his late teens or even early twenties, standing there. He had dark, short and slightly spiked hair. Round sunglasses covered his eyes. He wore a sleeveless jacket that had white fur lining the collar. He smirked, pointing at himself. "How's it going? The name's Lucien. But you can call me Luci if you want."

This wasn't the first time somebody had mistaken William as a female. It didn't particularly bother him, considering that even though he technically considered himself a guy, gender stereotypes were too much of pain to take serious. But it did kind of irritate him that the man was clearly flirting with him.

"Tch, you wouldn't know how long I've been here unless you were stalking me or something. Also, I'm  _not_  a girl."

"Leave the poor human alone, Lucien." Another voice joined in, scolding the man. Her voice was almost soothing, but threatening at the same time. Glancing over, William was slightly surprised to see that was the same female he'd seen before. Her gaze met his, as she used her left hand to comb through the ends of her flawless raven hair, the obsidian waves falling back into a perfect form as her fingers passed through. "You'll have to forgive him, he's a bit of a womanizer."

Upon closer inspection, William saw that her facial features were unbelievably beautiful. Her face looked practically porcelain and she favored a doll. In fact if she weren't moving and this were elsewhere, William might have thought she  _was_  one. She wore a jacket that, like Lucien's, had white fur lining on the collar, though hers had long sleeves and and was ankle length. Whether it was coincidence or an actual trend he didn't know, but William didn't really care about fasion. He assumed they were together though, and, for some reason, felt bitterness at that.

"Ah, come on, hun. That was a bit hypocritical of you, don't you think?..." Lucien said, teasingly. "But, really, I was just playing with..."

He looked back, pointing at William as if his statement had finally just sunk in. "so, wait,... Let me get this straight...You're a  _guy_  then?"

"Yeah, technically speaking... but I'd prefer to not buy into that gender nonsense. I am whatever I  _want_  to be." William said, with an edge to his voice. After a moment of looking dumbfounded, Lucien burst out laughing.

"Ha-ha-ha! I certainly didn't expect tha- OW!" he was cut short when the girl grabbed his ear, and squeezed it.

"Didn't I just say to leave them alone?" she said, with slight irritation. William couldn't help but be surprised when she called him a them. He supposed it was her being respectful, because his previous comments on his gender may have came off as contradictory.

"Geez,  _fine_ , I was just teasing him!" Lucien growled at her.

"Come on." she told him, ignoring his retort.

William wanted to say something, but he stopped upon hearing another voice. "Brother!"

It was Alphonse.

"What do you want? Don't tell me your precious mommy overworked herself or something again." William smirked sardonically and tiredly, before he glared at his younger half brother, noticing Lucien and the female walking off. He wished he had asked for her name. Alphonse seemed taken aback, by William's hostility and almost lost his resolve to confront him, but refused to back down. Alphonse knew that if he said anything about William's 'joke', William would be more than ready to try and provoke him, so he acted like William hadn't said anything, despite how much he wanted to slap his oldest brother for such a comment. Edward probably would have punched him.

"I came here because I wanted to talk to you." Alphonse said, averting his gaze. "May I sit down?"

"Fine, but hurry and spit it out. I don't have all day to talk about things." William muttered. Actually, he had been here all day because he  _didn't_  have anything to do, but that was just his way of saying he wasn't in a very sociable mood and had wanted to get away from the house.

"I wanted to know if you're feeling okay..." Alphonse started with uncertainty.

"I'm  _fine_." William growled, rolling his eyes. "Is that all?"

He  _really_  didn't want to discuss his feelings.

"We're all hurting because of dad, you know-" and that was enough to set William off.

"Look, I don't give a shit about what  _you're_  feeling! I don't care what  _Edward_  is feeling, or even what my own  _mother_  is feeling! All I know is that that bastard doesn't care that he abandoned us, okay? So just drop it." William looked over to realize that several people were looking at them, including the girl and guy from before, who had moved over a ways, and were talking to somebody else now. Alphonse edged back a bit, at his brothers harsh tone.

 _Shit,_ William mentally cursed.  _I probably look like a fool now. But screw them. I don't fucking care what they think._

"He doesn't love any of us," he, however decided to finish his thought, but more quieter, but no less irritably. However there was clearly pain in the older boy's eyes he spoke this time. "so we shouldn't even be upset over it, but yet here we are clinging to these bullshit feelings of attachment anyway without any reason... I don't get it, and I don't care to understand it either."

"I know it hurts, but you don't have to deal with it alone..." Alphonse said, noticing that they were being watched.

"I don't need you patronage, Alphonse." William said, but his voice didn't carry much weight behind it at this point.

"Do you know them?" He looked up when the question was thrown at him by his brother.

"Who?" William asked, confused for a second.

Alphonse pointed to Lucien and the woman. "I saw you talking with them and thought they might be your friends."

"Tch, they aren't my friends, and I barely know them. I kind passed by the girl earlier on the side-walk earlier, though. But only the guy gave me his name. And it's none of your business anyway."

William would be lying if he said he didn't want to get to know the woman at least.

"You _like_  her, don't you?" Alphonse smiled after a moment, to tease him. Obviously, there was no proof of anything, but it was more Alphonse's way of encouraging his brother to make a friend if he could.

"Shut up!" William snapped, wanting to punch Alphonse in the face, when he once again caught  _her_  eye. Did she just smirk?! William turned away, nothing going unnoticed by Alphonse.

"It's not like that at all...!" He hissed at his brother, his face heating up when he noticed several other people were staring once again. "What the hell are  _you_  looking at?!"

They immediately turned away from him.

"You're going to make a scene if you keep shouting, you know." Alphonse told him.

"And it'll be your fault for talking to me in the first place." William deadpanned.

"I think you should go ask her for her name. I'm sure she won't mind."

"Nah, I'll pass." William said, trying to appear nonchalant. "If it's that important, I'll find it out sooner or later anyway.

"Well, I'll go and ask then if you want." Alphonse offered, irritating William.

"No, fine. I'll  _do_  it." The older grumbled.  _Stupid brother._

 _If Alphonse asked her, I'd only seem more desperate than otherwise_.

So he approached her. "Out of curiosity, can I ask for your name?"

Lucien was laughing and talking to another guy at the moment, but the raven haired woman turned around at William's voice, giving a small smirk, as she folded her arms, scrutinizing him with a slightly amused expression, as the fur lining on her jacket, as well as her hair began to gently blow in the breeze, making her figure stand out even more.

"How funny. Isn't it only polite to give your own name first before asking for somebody else's?" She said, her eyes meeting his, practically staring through his very being. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by her as she placed a hand on his shoulder with a smirk. "You shouldn't worry so much,  _William._  I was only joking, after all..."

She leaned in a bit and told him, "And it's Solaris."

* * *

"Mom, can we get some cereal?" Edward asked, holding up box of said breakfast item.

"Sure. Why don't we get several boxes while we're at it, hmm?" Trisha smiled slightly, recieving a nod and "okay" from the blonde, as he picked a few boxes of various cereal into the cart. They had picked up some items like cheese, milk, eggs, beef and a few other things like laundry detergent that they were running low on.

After a short while, she recalled that there was something that William had asked her to pick up. What was it again? She couldn't remember. William wasn't the type to typically ask for much of anything to begin with, so she thought she would have remembered, but oddly, despite that, she just couldn't place what it was for the life of her. She looked to her son, who was fumbling with some cookies. "Edward, do you remember what it was that William said he needed?"

Edward looked up at her, not sure what it was at first, but then remembered. However, before he spoke, he stopped himself, feeling bitterness once again set in, and he lied. "No, I can't remember right off hand."

"If only I could remember." Trisha said, thinking about it for a moment, before smiling a bit. "Oh, well, I guess I'll ask him later."

While Edward did feel guilty for lying to his mother, since she hadn't done anything wrong, he didn't back down from his resolve. As far as he was concerned, William deserved that much. Besides, it was his fault for never being around to help her with anything. He would have got what he needed if he hadn't ran off.

And, anyway, William wasn't likely gonna get hurt in the next few days. So he surely wasn't in any immediate need of bandages or bandage wraps. Though it seems Trisha would normally remembered such an item anyway, and recognize that they would need more soon, so she must have been a bit distracted at the moment. Of course, in Edward's childish mind, it wasn't too serious, so he didn't both thinking into it much.

-  
"You forgot the bandages?!" Trisha knew he might be upset over it, but she didn't think that he would get this angry.

"You would have got them if you had actually been there." Edward grumbled, with satisfaction.

"You stay out of this!" William snapped, glaring.

"Well, then don't fuss at mom like it's her fault!"

"It doesn't take a genius to remember  _bandages_! This is  _your_  fault too. You were there! You should have said something, and I know that  _both_  of you didn't forget something so basic!"

"Yeah, well, maybe I didn't  _feel_  like reminding her!" Edward snapped, his breath catching in his throat when he gave himself away.

"Boys, try to calm down, please." Trisha told them. Alphonse had went into the bathroom, otherwise he probably would have been the one to tell them to stop fighting.

"I WAS calm before now! Maybe you should scold him for lying to you,  _mother dearest_!" William retorted, before walking out of the house, telling them. "I'm going to the store to get my bandages."

"Edward, why did you lie to me?" Trisha asked kneeling down when she noticed the way he was biting his lip.

He was obviously ashamed. "Because he's always a jerk to you to and you don't do anything about it. I was mad..."

"William has been through a lot, Ed. I've told you before, haven't I?"

"I know,  _"we've got to be patient with him."_ and I'm  _trying_  to! I'm sorry, mom..." He said, hugging her. Trisha gave a saddened looked, but returned the hug.

"Good, now go apologize to you brother, okay?"

"Alright." Edward nodded, before running out to catch up with his brother.

"Be careful going out. It's getting dark. Stay right by your brother's side, alright?"

"I know, mom!" Edward moaned, at being treated like a child, before making his way to catch up with his brother.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Empathy, Chapter 2. This was so hard to write, I hope it turned out well.** _

* * *

William was seething. He didn't ask for much, but bandages were the one thing he expected without question. He  _needed_  them. Because if his secret was found out, he didn't know what he'd do. Edward, that bastard, had done that shit on purpose just to spite him, probably for shouting at him for waking him up. That was his own damn problem.

To be honest, William knew he had probably overreacted a bit, and it wasn't like he  _enjoyed_ being angry all the time-  _No_ , scratch that he hated being angry all the time, but he had grown so used to hating the world and the people around him that he honestly, wasn't easily able to "just be calm" when somebody did something to piss him off. He envied Trisha for her ability to stay calm under pressure, and wanted to hate her for being what he couldn't. He also envied his brothers for their ability to rely on each other and love their mother, more importantly embrace that love.

Like right now. He didn't want to notice his brother there, but he couldn't help it. The little pest was impossible to ignore.

"...Why are you following me...?!" He finally snapped, turning around.

"Mom told me to come with you." Edward tried to reason with him, only to be shouted at again.

"Look, I don't need a  _babysitter_  to walk with me!" William growled. "Actually, whatever. Just don't talk to me."

 _You're the one who talked to him first,_ Logic told him.

Edward seemed to listen and just walked a couple feet behind him, speeding up to catch up every so often. Neither brother talked for about five minutes, before William had had enough.

"You know, I wouldn't be going anywhere right now to begin with if you hadn't  _lied_  to her about the bandages...!" he pointed out. Edward immediately wanted more than anything to give a retort, to piss William off, but he had pretty much made an unspoken promise to his mother that he would apologize to his brother.

So he had to try. "I know, what I did was wrong, and I'm sorry."

Even though Edward's apology was a little forced, he did know that it had been wrong to lie, though moreso to get Trisha caught up in a dispute between them when it had nothing to do with her. She hadn't deserved that. "But you owe mom an apology too. For being a jerk to her when it wasn't her fault."

Even if William knew than Edward was right, he refused to admit it, and refused to let him tell him what to do or push him around.

"I don't owe anybody  _anything_." he growled out, trying to punch Edward with his fist. Much to his irritation, the bastard caught it before he could land a blow.

"...See that?" Edward glared, but had a small look of satisfaction. "You can't  _always_  solve everything with your violence, William."

William glared, when Edward's grip tugged on his sleeve, causing him to flinch at the pain. "You bastard...!"

"We all try our best to be nice to you, but you're constantly treating mom like shit. I hope you know that I'm not gonna sit around kissing your ass to keep from offending you!  _I'm_  the bastard? Why don't you look at yourself for once!?"

"Don't talk about me like you understand anything! You don't know shit about me! A guy like you who's spent his whole life surrounded by people has no right to tell me  _anything_!"

"You're right! I don't understand anything about you. There's no way I could know everything you've been through, even if I  _wanted_  to because, for  _one_ , I'm not you! And, nextly, you never let anybody in on anything! And aside from the fact that I have a family and some companionship, what do you really know about me? You haven't seen what I've seen either! You don't know all that I've been through anymore than I know what  _you've_  been through! None of that matters, because we're all just humans, and ALL have been through shit we don't want to think about...! And instead of facing that, you'd rather just accept things and play the role of some tragic deliquent. You're nothing but a cowar-!"

"Shut up! It's easy for  _you_  to say that!" William shouted, pushing Edward over to where his back was facing the ground, and he was sitting on top of him. "Since you're so optimistic, I'll spell it out for you. Everywhere you look, people are commiting  _crimes_ , Edward. Parents are either abusing or neglecting their children, or have you forgotten how our own father abanoned us?!"

Edward eyes widened, and he looked away, not wanting to face it.

"There's nothing good about this world, or the people in it, everything in it is shit. Why the hell would I want to face a god forsaken world like that?"

"You're right..." Edward choked out, looking up at his brother with a painfilled expression. "This world does suck, but if you can't  _find_ any hope, then why not create it, like Mom gives to  _us_. It's better than sitting around, brooding over how terrible this world is...!"

"Just shut up already!" William raised his fist, but couldn't bring himself to throw the punch. Why the hell was he holding back?!

That's when Edward said it. The words that, more than anything, he really didn't want to hear right now. "Or what? You'll hit me? Go ahead. It'll just prove that I'm right."

"In case you haven't learnt by now, that's  _all I know how to fucking do_!" There was a crashing sound. Edward had closed his eyes, expecting to get punched in the face, but he was surprised when he reopened them to see that William had just punched the ground beside him. William's face was hidden by his hair, as he looked away, not saying another word. Then he stood up, starting to walk off. Whatever expression he was making, Edward couldn't tell.

"Hey, are you okay...?" he brought himself to ask softly, showing some concern for his older brother for the first time that day and a while in fact, as he got up, following after him.

"I'm fine. I don't need your concern." William grumbled, keeping his words short, their previous conversation completely abandoned. His voice, however sounded strained.

"...If you don't mind me asking, why do you feel such a strong need to keep bandages around? You act like they're a lifeline to you or something, so I was wondering. Are you hurt somewhere?"

Edward couldn't have seen his cuts, right? William felt a bit of panic at the thought, but in the case that Edward didn't know, he had to stay as calm as possible, his obviously swelling hand considered. "I just like to be prepared. Doesn't anybody, pipsqueak?"

"I told you to stop calling me little! I was just asking a question...!"

William didn't say anything in response, even though he would normally mock his little brother about his reaction, but he didn't. Edward realized that something was wrong. He gave a deep breath.

Both of them were just tired, nothing was wrong, William wasn't hiding anything, and Edward certainly wasn't worried. Or so he had wanted to tell himself before, but now Edward was sure that something was wrong.

Long sleeves, constant need for bandages, flinching when his arm had been rubbed. Maybe William had been getting into fights or something of the sorts recently. But Edward knew that William  _was_  injured, whatever the cause of it may be.

But he wasn't going to say anything, and didn't know what he could say at this point. What  _should_  he say?

...  
That night, William lied in bed, thinking back over the day's events. Meeting Solaris and Lucien honestly hadn't been so bad, and he was somewhat looking forward to meeting back up with them again. But then all the things that had transpired this evening had left him with a splitting headache, and anxiety that just wouldn't leave him alone. Scratching at his wrist, he began to wonder. What would Edward do if he found out? What would Solaris and Lucien think if they saw the cuts? Or Alphonse or Trisha? Especially his own mother and father, who had never truly seemed to care to begin with. They'd probably all think he was insane. Hell, he already knew he was, but he couldn't change it, no matter  _what_  Edward said.

Unlike Edward, he just didn't know how to deal with people at all. And to top it off, he couldn't stop thinking about his father and mother. And every other possible thought he didn't want to think about was swarming in his mind. He scratched at his wrist even harder. It wouldn't leave him alone, even if he wanted to forget about it. Feelings of anger, resentment, depression, and so many other things set in once again to consume him, and he was left to deal with his feelings again. Alone.

So he did exactly what he did every other time his emotions became too much for him to cope with. Bleed.

He refused to cry about anything.

_~End of chapter.~_


End file.
